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“The posters,” Thea wheezed as she tried to get back her breath. “Are they still there?”
“They vanished about a month ago, when King Gaius came out of hiding. Light! Were you hiding, too? Thea, what happened?”
Thea's heart skipped a beat. So he was there. She extricated herself from her cousin's hands and brushed over her dress again. “So much has happened, I hardly know where to begin. Oh, but what about you? You've kept the shop going by yourself, all these weeks?”
Concern rose in Elia's eyes and her excitement faded. “Well, sort of. I'm not sure if... that is, I've done my best, but there's a problem, and...”
After all she'd dealt with at this point, Thea couldn't fathom what it might be. “What? Angry customers? A late wedding gown?”
“No. It—” The clock chimed before Elia could finish. “Light! Is it that time already? I have to—oh!” She clapped her hands together with a gasp and hurried across the room.
Thea turned to watch her. “Where are you going?”
“I have somewhere to be!” Elia pulled on her cloak and flipped the sign on the door to show they were closed. “But this is perfect. You have to come with me. You'll be able to settle this in no time.”
“What are you on about?” Thea asked, but her cousin grabbed a satchel and then grabbed her arm before she could object.
“You'll see.” There was a light in Elia's eyes again, a hint of excitement Thea couldn't understand.
Her cousin dragged her out the back door and into the street.
“But I haven't got any shoes on!” Thea protested.
“We don't have time, we'll be late. Hurry!” Elia dragged her along through the streets. They were clear, but wet, and Thea's socks were soaked through in no time. Her toes burned with the cold by the time she realized where they were headed.
The red granite palace at the heart of Samara lay just ahead.
“Wait.” Thea tried to stop, but her cold feet gave her no purchase. “Wait, I'm not ready!”
“We don't have time,” Elia insisted. “You didn't get a chance to see him last time, are you really going to throw away a second audience?”
“I can't! Not like this!” Not in a snow-damp dress with mud-stained socks and no shoes, and no idea what to say.
“My father tried to petition the council while they led the country, while the king was rumored to be dead,” Elia explained. “Then the king returned, so he took his audience with him, instead. Even with my father's station, it was fruitless. Father wasn't in line to inherit the property, he said. The shop is set to be possessed by the crown. They're right about him, Thea. Everything we've heard. He's absolutely heartless.”
And as heartbroken as Thea was, if she'd learned anything at all. Selfishly, she prayed it was so.
“But we're not giving up. I asked for this audience right after, and if he is mean, at least he's fast.”
“You're late,” the guard at the palace gate called as they approached.
“I'm not late! I'm on time, but barely.” Elia pulled a paper from her bag and waved it at him as she passed. Thea stared at it, dumbfounded. Her cousin caught the look and gave her a lopsided grin. “I guess that's one thing that runs in the family. No sense of time at all.”
Thea couldn't find the will to argue. By the Light, what was she supposed to say to him? She was supposed to have time to gather her wits, collect her thoughts, maybe ask to speak with him in private. Instead, her cousin dragged her up the stairs and into the palace. Behind her, the guards wheezed with laughter at her appearance.
“I can't,” Thea gasped, one last effort to save her dignity. She was a mess, her hair tangled and limp, her feet leaving wet marks on the floor—
“You will.” Elia shoved a handful of papers into her grasp and then planted her hands on Thea's back to thrust her through the doors and into the throne room.
The doors banged open and she stumbled onto a plush carpet she didn't remember from her first visit.
Thea froze.
Gaius slouched on the throne and conversed with a guard nearby, his face so cross she hardly believed it was him, and so handsome she couldn't help but stare.
Taxes.
They'd never seemed so trivial.
